Faltonia Betitia Proba
Faltonia Betitia Proba (c. AD 306/315 – c. 353/366) was a Latin Roman Christian poet, perhaps the earliest female Christian poet whose work survives. A member of one of the most influential aristocratic families, she composed the Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi, a cento composed with verses by Virgil re-ordered to form an epic poem centred on the life of Jesus.
Life
Proba belonged to an influential family of the 4th century, the
Her family was
With her husband she owned the Horti Aciliorum at Rome, on the Pincian Hill.[7]
Works
Two poems are attributed to "Proba", and only one is
Constantini bellum adversus Magnentium
The first poem, now lost, is called Constantini bellum adversus Magnentium (The War of Constantine against Magnentius) by the Codex Mutinensis. It dealt with the war between Roman Emperor
The existence of this first poem is based on the first verses of the second poem. Here Proba rejects her first Pagan composition, and scholars think that the Pagan poem was destroyed according to her will.[9]
Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi
Proba's most famous work is a Virgilian cento—a patchwork of verses extracted from several works of Virgil, with minimal modifications—entitled Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi (A Virgilian Cento Concerning the Glory of Christ). The 694 lines are divided into a proemium with invocation (lines 1–55), episodes from the Old Testament (lines 56-345), episodes from the New Testament (lines 346–688), and an epilogue (lines 689–694).[10]
References
Citations
- ^ Fassina.
- ^ Anthony Wagner, "Pedigree and Progress – Essays in the genealogical interpretation of history, Phillimore, London, (1975) Pedigree 22, page 180
- ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- ISBN 0-520-06566-2, p. 229.
- ^ CIL VI, 1712.
- ^ a b Lizzi Testa.
- ^ Samuel Ball Platner, "Horti Aciliorum", A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, Oxford University Press, 1929.
- ^ Green 1995, p. 551.
- ISBN 0-19-818502-2, p. 65.
- ^ Arbea, Antonio. "El Carmen Sacrum de Faltonia Betitia Proba, la Primera Poetisa Cristiana". Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
Bibliography
- Clark, Elizabeth; Hatch, Diane (1981). "Jesus as Hero in the Vergilian 'Cento' of Faltonia Betitia Proba". Vergilius (27): 31–39.
- Cullhed, Sigrid Schottenius (2015). Proba the Prophet. ISBN 9789004289482.
- Fassina, Alessia (2006). "Alterazioni semantiche ed espedienti compositivi nel Cento Probae". Incontri triestini di filologia classica V, 2005-2006. Trieste: Edizioni Università di Trieste. pp. 261–72. ISBN 88-8303-192-X.
- Green, R. P. H. (1995). "Proba's Cento: Its Date, Purpose, and Reception". The Classical Quarterly. 45 (2): 551–563. S2CID 163022254.
- Hatch, Diane; Clark, Elizabeth (1981). The Golden Bough, the Oaken Cross: The Virgilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba. Scholars Press.
- Jensen, Anne (1996). God's Self-Confident Daughters. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664256722.
- Mărmureanu, Cătălina; Cernescu, Gianina; Lixandru, Laura (2008). "Early Christian Women Writers: The Interesting Lives and Works of Faltonia Betitia Proba and Athenais-Eudocia" (PDF). University of Bucharest. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 8, 2017. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
{{cite journal}}
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(help) - Martindale; Robert, John; Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin; Morris, John (1971). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 732.
- Rita, Lizzi Testa (2004). Senatori, popolo, papi: il governo di Roma al tempo dei Valentiniani. Edipuglia. pp. 118–19. ISBN 88-7228-392-2.
- Smith, William. "Falconia Proba". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 2. p. 134. Archived from the original on 2011-05-14.
- Thompson, James (1906). "Vergil in Mediaeval Culture". The American Journal of Theology. 10 (4): 648–662. doi:10.1086/478640.